RHCSA Exam Objectives#

Copied on 2025-07-14

Study points for the exam#

RHCSA exam candidates should be able to accomplish the tasks below without assistance. These have been grouped into several categories.

Understand and use essential tools#

  • Access a shell prompt and issue commands with correct syntax
  • Use input-output redirection (>, >>, |, 2>, etc.)
  • Use grep and regular expressions to analyze text
  • Access remote systems using SSH
  • Log in and switch users in multiuser targets
  • Archive, compress, unpack, and uncompress files using tar, gzip, and bzip2
  • Create and edit text files
  • Create, delete, copy, and move files and directories
  • Create hard and soft links
  • List, set, and change standard ugo/rwx permissions
  • Locate, read, and use system documentation including man, info, and files in /usr/share/doc

Create simple shell scripts#

  • Conditionally execute code (use of: if, test, [], etc.)
  • Use Looping constructs (for, etc.) to process file, command line input
  • Process script inputs ($1, $2, etc.)
  • Processing output of shell commands within a script

Operate running systems#

  • Boot, reboot, and shut down a system normally
  • Boot systems into different targets manually
  • Interrupt the boot process in order to gain access to a system
  • Identify CPU/memory intensive processes and kill processes
  • Adjust process scheduling
  • Manage tuning profiles
  • Locate and interpret system log files and journals
  • Preserve system journals
  • Start, stop, and check the status of network services
  • Securely transfer files between systems

Configure local storage#

  • List, create, delete partitions on MBR and GPT disks
  • Create and remove physical volumes
  • Assign physical volumes to volume groups
  • Create and delete logical volumes
  • Configure systems to mount file systems at boot by universally unique ID (UUID) or label
  • Add new partitions and logical volumes, and swap to a system non-destructively

Create and configure file systems#

  • Create, mount, unmount, and use vfat, ext4, and xfs file systems
  • Mount and unmount network file systems using NFS
  • Configure autofs
  • Extend existing logical volumes
  • Create and configure set-GID directories for collaboration
  • Diagnose and correct file permission problems

Deploy, configure, and maintain systems#

  • Schedule tasks using at and cron
  • Start and stop services and configure services to start automatically at boot
  • Configure systems to boot into a specific target automatically
  • Configure time service clients
  • Install and update software packages from Red Hat Network, a remote repository, or from the local file system
  • Modify the system bootloader

Manage basic networking#

  • Configure IPv4 and IPv6 addresses
  • Configure hostname resolution
  • Configure network services to start automatically at boot
  • Restrict network access using firewall-cmd/firewall

Manage users and groups#

  • Create, delete, and modify local user accounts
  • Change passwords and adjust password aging for local user accounts
  • Create, delete, and modify local groups and group memberships
  • Configure superuser access

Manage security#

  • Configure firewall settings using firewall-cmd/firewalld
  • Manage default file permissions
  • Configure key-based authentication for SSH
  • Set enforcing and permissive modes for SELinux
  • List and identify SELinux file and process context
  • Restore default file contexts
  • Manage SELinux port labels
  • Use boolean settings to modify system SELinux settings
  • Diagnose and address routine SELinux policy violations

Manage containers#

  • Find and retrieve container images from a remote registry
  • Inspect container images
  • Perform container management using commands such as podman and skopeo
  • Perform basic container management such as running, starting, stopping, and listing running containers
  • Run a service inside a container
  • Configure a container to start automatically as a systemd service
  • Attach persistent storage to a container

As with all Red Hat performance-based exams, configurations must persist after reboot without intervention.